Ezra Abraham "Bud" Brown (born January 22, 1944, in Reading, Pennsylvania) is an American mathematician active in combinatorics, algebraic number theory, elliptic curves, graph theory, expository mathematics and cryptography. He spent most of his career at Virginia Tech where he is now Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics.[1]

Education and career

Brown earned a BA at Rice University in 1965.[2] He then studied mathematics at Louisiana State University (LSU), getting an MS in 1967 and a PhD in 1969 with the dissertation "Representations of Discriminantal Divisors by Binary Quadratic Forms" under Gordon Pall.[3] He joined Virginia Tech in 1969 becoming Assistant Professor (1969–73), Associate Professor (1973–81), Professor (1981–2005), and Alumni Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Distinguished Professor of Mathematics (2005–2017). He retired from Virginia Tech in 2017.[4][5][1]

Brown became interested in elliptic curves while at LSU and this has remained one of his principal areas of research along with quadratic forms and algebraic number theory in general.

His books include The Unity of Combinatorics (MAA, 2020), co-authored with Richard K. Guy.[6]

Personal life

While at LSU he met his future wife Jo. Brown remained at Virginia Tech until his retirement in 2017.

At the age of 16 Brown taught himself to play the piano, and in college he acted in several musicals and joined an a cappella chorus. In 1989, he joined the Blacksburg Master Chorale and the chorus of Opera Roanoke. Starting in 2011 he took his love of music and math to MathFest where he an his fellow mathematicians composed new words to old show tunes and even took part in a Gilbert-and-Sullivan Singalong at MathFest 2016 with his "Biscuits of Number Theory" co-editor Art Benjamin.[7]

Brown and his mathematical grandfather, L. E. Dickson, have the same birthday.[8]

Selected publications

papers
books

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d Board of Visitors honors Ezra A. 'Bud' Brown of mathematics with emeritus status Virginia Tech
  2. ^ Alumni In The News: Ezra "Bud" Brown Rice Magazine
  3. ^ Representations of discriminantal divisors by binary quadratic forms Journal of Number Theory, Volume 3, Issue 2, May 1971, pp. 213–225
  4. ^ Ezra A. Brown Curriculum Vitae
  5. ^ Ezra "Bud" Brown: Passing the Torch of Mentorship VTstories, April 24, 2019
  6. ^ American Mathematical Society: MAA Press
  7. ^ a b "Biscuits of Number Theory". Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  8. ^ Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves, Published 2000
  9. ^ a b Five Families Around a Well: A New Look at an Old Problem The College Mathematics Journal, Volume 49, 2018 – Issue 3
  10. ^ "Many More Names of (7,3,1)" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 88, no. 2, June 2015, pp. 103–120
  11. ^ "Why Ellipses Are Not Elliptic Curves" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 85, no. 3, June 2012, pp. 163–176
  12. ^ "Kirkman's Schoolgirls Wearing Hats and Walking Through Fields of Numbers" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 82, no. 1, February 2009, pp. 3–15
  13. ^ Phoebe Floats! The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 36, (2005), pp. 114–122.
  14. ^ The Fabulous (11, 5, 2) Biplane Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 77, No. 2, Permutations (Apr. 2004), pp. 87–100
  15. ^ "The Many Names of (7,3,1)" Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 75 (2002), pp. 83–94
  16. ^ Three Fermat Trails to Elliptic Curves The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 31 (2000), pp. 162–172.
  17. ^ Square Roots from 1; 24, 51, 10 to Dan Shanks The College Math Journal Vol. 30 (1999), 82–95.
  18. ^ The Unity of Combinatorics by Ezra Brown and Richard K. Guy
  19. ^ Regiomontanus: His Life and Work, a translation of Ernst Zinner's Leben und Werken des Johann Muller von Koenigsberg, genannt Regiomontanus, North-Holland, Amsterdam-New York, 1990
  20. ^ Sister Helen Christensen Service Award The Mathematical Association of America
  21. ^ a b c Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards Mathematical Association of America
  22. ^ a b c George Pólya Awards Mathematical Association of America
  23. ^ John M. Smith Awards MMA Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Section

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